Fairfax County Police Watch: First claim filed against cop in sex assaults

SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) - The first claim for damages has been filed against the city for alleged sexual battery at the hands of a San Diego police officer.

CBS News 8 spoke to the attorney representing the woman, who claims she was groped while being frisked by officer Christopher Hays.

"The officer gave her a ride home, as she was getting out of the car, the officer says, oh I forgot to frisk you," said attorney Brian Watkins.

The sexual battery allegedly happened October 2013, along University Avenue near 54th Street.

The alleged victim, who was not under arrest, claims San Diego Police Officer Christopher Hays offered to give her a ride home, but then pulled over near a dumpster in the back of a strip mall and started frisking her.

"The search consisted of him grabbing her breasts with both hands, grabbing her crotch, grabbing her buttocks, and then he grabbed her wrist and put it on his crotch," continued Watkins.

Attorney Brian Watkins represents the unidentified woman, who he admits has a criminal history, including a previous arrest by Officer Hays.

"He was targeting women who would be scared to come forward with this information, woman who he had power and authority over," said Watkins. "In a he said, she said, he would win that battle."

Watkins says the women told her boyfriend about the incident the same night it happened.

The attorney has now filed claim against the city for more than $10,000 in damages - a move that usually means a lawsuit is coming.

"She is in a very traumatic situation where she's up against an officer with authority and credibility of being a police officer, and that's a fearful situation to be in," added Watkins.

Officer Hays was arrested and bailed out of jail over the weekend, after several other woman came forward with similar accusations against the former Marine, husband and father of two.

Through his attorney, Officer Hays has denied any wrongdoing.

The district attorney is still reviewing the case for possible criminal charges. An arraignment has been set for Tuesday, February 18.

Morrogh finds cop he doesn’t love. In other news, hell freezes.

Probe of fatal police shooting goes to federal authorities

By Justin Jouvenal/Post

The Fairfax County prosecutor has turned over the investigation of a fatal police shooting of an unarmed Springfield man to federal authorities, citing complications with the five-month-old case.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh said the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia has agreed to continue the probe into the death of 46-year-old John Geer, who was shot during a standoff with Fairfax County police in August. No one has been charged in the incident.

“There is a conflict of interest that has arisen in the case,” Morrogh said Thursday. “And there is a second potential conflict of interest that has arisen out of my office. . . . This is the prudent thing to do.”

Morrogh declined to describe the nature of the conflicts because the investigation is ongoing. The U.S. attorney’s office said Thursday that it could not confirm or deny any investigation or comment on pending investigations.

Police went to Geer’s Pebble Brook Court home on Aug. 29 because of a report of a domestic disturbance. Geer’s father, Don Geer, said his son was upset because his girlfriend, the mother of his two children, had decided to leave him.

John Geer had thrown his girlfriend’s belongings in the front yard. She called police and told them that Geer had a firearm. Police said they tried for about 50 minutes to persuade Geer to leave the home, but he refused.

Don Geer said he watched the climax of the encounter. He said that he could not hear what officers were saying to his son but that he saw him standing with empty hands resting on top of a screen door at the home’s entrance.

At some point, John Geer began to slowly lower his hands and an officer opened fire, hitting Geer in the chest, his father said. Geer retreated inside and closed the door. A SWAT team eventually entered the home and found Geer dead.

Don Geer said detectives later told him that his son did not have a gun on him at the time of the shooting but that there was a holstered handgun a couple of steps from the front door.

Don Geer said it appeared to him that the shooting was unjustified, but he was unsure what to make of the probe being turned over to federal authorities.

“I don’t know whether that’s good or bad — if I had a better idea of why they are doing it, I could form an opinion,” he said.

Geer and friends of his son have been critical of how long the investigation has taken, but Morrogh said police and prosecutors were working to explore all the evidence. He did not think federal prosecutors would have to start from scratch.

“No one wants these things to linger on,” Morrogh said.

Our ink will outlast his career

Under the reign of former Chief of Police Rhorer the Fairfax County Police arrested a man for not wearing clothes in his house while he made coffee, set up an eye doctor on a gambling charge and then used the SWAT team to kill him. An investigation into the charge that the Doctor’s primary clients were cops has never been investigated. The police gunned down an emotionally unstable man because cop who shot him wrongly assumed the man was trying to escape. He wasn’t. The cops also shot dead four other citizens under highly questionable circumstances. The department under Rhorer was sued multiple times by citizens. So did they fire Rhorer? Naw they promoted him. According to news reports Rhorer draws a salary of $191,168 per year as Deputy Fairfax County Executive as well as a concurrent pension from the Fairfax County police of $173000 per year.

Occupation by force

According to the most recent U.S. Census figures, nearly one in five Fairfax residents (17.5 percent) is of Asian descent while Hispanics make up nearly 16 percent of Fairfax’s overall population. Those numbers drop considerably when applied to the Fairfax County Police Department, where only 4.3 percent of officers are Asian and 4.1 percent Hispanic. White officers make up 84 percent of Fairfax County’s 1,360-member police department, significantly higher than the county’s general population (54 percent white). Almost 90% of the force lives outside the county.